Yeah, we could nitpick the details (like why is the DM fighting alongside the players?!?!?), and I might ding them a point for playing 4th edition because I’m opinionated and petty. But really, it’s just a good, fun geek parody music video.

And no, I’d never heard the original song (“Like a G6”) before, either.

@LateWhiteRabbit During my Warhammer battles and a few of the RPGs I played a loooonnnnggg time ago we always said “Dee six/Dee 8” etc.

I’m a little curious to how fun a 4th edition D&D game would be on the computer. I’ve heard more than a few times how the rules are made for a computer game. That’s ok because there is no way I’ll ever be able to play a P&P game. Sorta sucks, but that’s what happens when you live in a foreign country that doesn’t speak your native language. So I really would like to see them make a 4th edition computer game.

I always get a little chuckle out of the irony of that. In the beginning when computer games were just being made the rpgs got a lot of inspiration from D&D, but now years later the roles have reversed. D&D is now trying to be more like the rpg computer games. A little ironic if you ask me 🙂

I’ve actually pronounced it both ways, but lately I’ve been pronouncing it “dee.”

In the song, “Always the first to die,” the singer pronounces it “dice” – “I only do one dice four, one dice four…” I’d never heard that before.

As to RPGs imitating CRPGs – you know, my complaints about games being “too balanced” really could be applied to third edition in a big way. That’s the one that sorta introduced things being “over balanced.” My joke was that third edition resembled computer games as designed by people who knew NOTHING about computer games.

Whereas 4th edition – well, while I think it isn’t coincidental that it bears a resemblance to popular MMOs, I think it’s genesis is more firmly rooted in Wizard’s forte – collectible card games (and now, miniatures games).

Eldiran said,

@LWR: It honestly didn’t ever occur to me there was a way to say it other than “dee 6”, “dee 8”, etc.

And hey, 4th edition CAN be fun! It’s not that bad. You just have to ignore all the rules about skill challenges. …and overrule the broken powers and feats. …and maybe make all your own monsters. And definitely only allow your own magic items. And not let your players play certain classes like Avengers… and, well, it can still be fun, okay?!

Heh – I have the Player’s Handbook for 4E but still haven’t played. It actually in all seriousness DOES look like a fun game. And I really enjoyed the miniatures game, too. But it didn’t inspire me to really push to play it or anything.

I mean, I played 1st edition AD&D. And pre-1st-edition whatever you wanna call it D&D. Those games were plenty broken. And oh, we played ’em to death. Yeah, I eventually got annoyed with ’em and moved on to something else, but we had a lot of fun up until then.

Makes me wish I had grown up playing pen-and-paper RPGs. Can I hit F9 and reroll my childhood experiences, please?

Menigal said,

Heh – I have the Player’s Handbook for 4E but still haven’t played. It actually in all seriousness DOES look like a fun game

Not to derail the conversation and turn it into yet another “bitch about changes to your beloved games” session, but that’s kind of what I thought. It does look like it could be a fun game, but just not a game I could play as anything but a very unserious board game. It takes so much control out of the DM’s hand, loses a lot of the fun and flavor of character design (be a party role, not a character!), and there’s absolutely no way I could make a remotely believable world out of it.

What actually annoys me about it is that it didn’t have to be that way. The rules are they are could almost have been a new Basic D&D, and then there could have been a less “gamey” version that added the good ideas to a more open system. Oh well, it’s not like I even play these days. :p

Well, fortunately there are lots of choices nowadays, in spite of the best efforts of Hasbro. We’ve pretty much declared Pathfinder (jokingly referred to as D&D 3.75) as our fantasy RPG of choice for pen & paper. It feels more like D&D than D&D does these days.

Eldiran said,

@Menigal: not to derail the conversation into “defend the changes to your beloved games” session, but how does it remove control from the DM? Just like before, you can ban any section of rules/items/abilities/classes/etc. And you can make up any section of the same, really. Heck, one of my players is using a Time Mage class I fabricated entirely.

To tell the truth it doesn’t sound half bad, but I’m a sucker for miniature games 😉

Menigal said,

Eldiran, I’ll leave that answer to D&D forums, where this stuff has been discussed ad infinitum. 😉

Eldiran said,

Yeah, that’s probably for the best. 😛

SER said,

Yeah, Pathfinder seems to have largely captured the market of people who didn’t care for, or didn’t want to switch to, DnD 4e. And it seems they are now making a grab for new players with the announcement of their beginners box.

That was a very good overview of the game and basically overlapped my own experiences.

The game is the best mechanically… miniature battle game that I’ve ever played. The rules are fairly quick and very… balanced…

But the characters didn’t have much character. The rules were so focused on the next big brawl… that I felt like a was playing a tactical game. I find roleplaying alot more fun when I’m allowed to put skill points into Basket Weaving and Begging rather than just “Combat”, “Dodge” and “Magic”.

While it could have just been the group I played with… the game felt very mechanical and min-maxey rather than like role playing.

And to pretend that I am staying on topic on this post… I officially have this song on my playlist now :/